Mending the relationship between the Russian Rocket and his former team was a long time coming

Retired Vancouver Canucks forward Pavel Bure (left) of Russia, Canucks president and general manager Mike Gillis (centre) and team owner Francesco Aquilini unveil a painting presented to Bure after the NHL team inducted him into their ‘Hall of Heroes’ in Vancouver, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. The Canucks will retire Bure’s No. 10 Saturday before a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Photograph by: DARRYL DYCK
, THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER — His jersey will be lifted to the rafters Saturday, but Pavel Bure came home to the Vancouver Canucks last April when owner Francesco Aquilini raised a trial balloon at Rogers Arena.

Had any doubts existed — and Aquilini had none — about the propriety of honouring a player who spent most of his seven years with the National Hockey League team yearning to leave, they were eradicated when Bure attended a Thursday-night Canuck game against the Edmonton Oilers.

Invited to Vancouver by Aquilini, Bure was in the owner’s box as fans stood and roared when the Russian Rocket, a new inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, was shown on the scoreboard screen.

“People gave him a five-minute standing ovation,” Aquilini marvelled this week. “It was unbelievable. It really solidified how the fans felt about Pavel and how he felt about the fans. Pavel was crying. It actually brought tears to his eyes. It was a very special moment for him.

“This is really all about the fans. That’s why I did this. Pavel was tremendously popular. I know a lot of people who became fans because of Pavel. After we became owners, people would say to me: ‘What about Pavel? You’ve got to do something about Pavel.’ ”

Aquilini did. He met with Bure before the Hall-of-Fame ceremony in Toronto last November, then championed the winger’s jersey-retirement candidacy within the Canuck organization.

Mending the relationship between Bure and the Canucks, ending the estrangement of the most exciting player in franchise history, should become a significant piece of the Aquilini legacy in hockey. The owner, who admits he is a fan first, has returned one of the most popular players in franchise history to the Canuck family.

“Until we win a Stanley Cup, I can’t really say I accomplished much as an owner,” Aquilini said. “But in terms of Pavel, this is a big deal to us. It’s happening because the fans really wanted it to happen. That’s why I stepped up and started having discussions with him. I knew the fans wanted it.

“Pavel is going to be part of the Canuck family. I said this relationship had to be a two-way street, and he said ‘absolutely.’ That was the only way it could be. If it was any other way, it wouldn’t have happened. That was not a problem for him at all. He was honoured. He felt that it was time.”

Thirteen years before his family bought a share of the Canucks and their arena, Aquilini was a season-ticket holder at the Pacific Coliseum when Bure played made his electrifying Canuck debut in 1991.

Back then, new Canuck players often stayed at a hotel the Aquilinis owned near the Coliseum. Francesco was the manager and he got to know Pavel and his best friend on the Canucks, Gino Odjick, who was in his second NHL season when Bure arrived in the NHL.

The teammates were inseparable and Aquilini became friends with both.

Odjick said Francesco approached him a few years ago about a potential business deal between the Aquilinis and Musqueam Indian Band, on whose Vancouver reserve the former player lives.

“I bartered with him,” Odjick said. “I said bring back Pavel. Francesco had to fight hard to make this happen.

“People were scared. Sometimes you’re not ready. A lot of people didn’t think it was possible, but Pavel always wanted to have his number retired. It’s just nobody asked him. Francesco Aquilini asked him and he came. It only took a crazy Italian to do it and a crazy Indian chewing his ear. Pavel belongs here.”

Injuries ended Bure’s career with the New York Rangers in 2003 and he did not return to Vancouver until the 2010 Olympics. Bure spent parts of four seasons with the Florida Panthers after a 1999 trade he forced by refusing to honour his Canuck contract.

Bure has said his grievances, most of them relating to money, were due to Canuck management at the time. The general manager was Pat Quinn, which seems ironic because it was Quinn who used his position on the HHoF selection committee to lobby aggressively for Bure’s inclusion last year. Quinn is one of Bure’s guests for the jersey retirement ceremony before today’s game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Quinn essentially saved the Canuck franchise from ruin and relocation after taking charge of the organization in 1987. He oversaw the Canucks’ first extended run of superiority and, with a team driven by Bure and Trevor Linden, nearly won the 1994 Stanley Cup. His acknowledgment by the Canucks is long overdue.

If Bure’s jersey can go to the rafters, Quinn’s name should certainly go on the Canucks’ Ring of Honour. But that’s another column.

Bure’s day Friday was overshadowed by the Canucks’ re-signing of stars Daniel and Henrik Sedin, whose numbers will be the next ones retired five or six years from now.

This is Bure’s night and, like Odjick said, a lot of people thought it would never happen.

“Any people who don’t agree with this,” Aquilini said, “I wish they would see it as the majority do: What was Pavel like as a hockey player when he played for the Canucks? That’s what I remember. He always wanted to win, always had the best interests of the team at heart when he stepped on the ice.

“Pavel always knew the fans loved him. They want to see Pavel’s jersey hanging from the rafters because of who he was and what he brought to the ice. Pavel was such an exciting player. You knew something would happen — a goal or breakaway. I wish he would have stayed as a Canuck but he asked to get traded and got traded and life went on.

“But I thought one day if there was an opportunity, I’d do something about it. You can go all over the world and people know about Pavel Bure. People were crazy about him because of the way he played. He was a player for the people. I always thought of him as a Canuck.”

Retired Vancouver Canucks forward Pavel Bure (left) of Russia, Canucks president and general manager Mike Gillis (centre) and team owner Francesco Aquilini unveil a painting presented to Bure after the NHL team inducted him into their ‘Hall of Heroes’ in Vancouver, on Friday, Nov. 1, 2013. The Canucks will retire Bure’s No. 10 Saturday before a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

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